In the final of the 2006 Women's Volleyball World Championships, Olympic runners-up Russia yesterday came back from one set down to beat Brazil 3-2 and claim the title in Osaka, Japan. The Russians won 15-25, 25-23, 25-18, 20-25, 15-13 to take the gold for the first time since 1990.

Olympic and World Cup champions China finished the tournament in fifth place after defeating hosts Japan. The Chinese won in straight sets 25-19, 25-22, 25-22.

Xu Yunli's windmill smash opened the game in the first set and China took an early advantage with several front row attacks, leading 8-1 at the first technical timeout. But the Japanese played cunningly with more rotations and a faster playing rhythm to cut the deficit to 20-18. It was the block points and attacking shots that helped China seal the first set 25-19.

Japan played strongly in the second set with aggressive counter-attacks taking the game to a tense 21-21 until their unforced spike errors pushed China to win the set 25-22.
　
The early third set also witnessed a seesaw battle between the two Asian squads. Japan fell behind 19-24 and saved three match points, but China never looked back as Wang Yimei sealed the victory for China with a powerful kill.

Ochiai Shuka of Japan scored a game-high 17 points, 16 from spikes, while Wang Yimei scored 14 points to lead China in the win.

Osaka was once a hallowed ground for China's women volleyball as former Chinese teams had won the world cup title twice there, in 1981 and 2003 respectively. But with seven wins and four losses on aggregate, China finally clinched the fifth place of the 2006 tournament. Having lost to Germany and the Netherlands in the group games, China staggered into the second phase with the help of the US, who beat Germany at the last moment. Had Germany won, China would have been ousted from the last eight.

After Wang Yimei's winning spike during the game between China and Japan, Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe sighed, "Finally, it's over."

Chen is famed for his genteel and cultured behavior as a coach. Even after the loss to Germany he smiled to sooth captain Feng Kun who cried at the press conference and said, "Please smile, you can stand it. I smiled and you should smile." But when China were upset by the Netherlands in the last group match, he flew into a fury at the press conference.

China used to be a world powerhouse in the 1980s and 90s under the philosophy of "a mix of tall and fast, combination of flexibility and variety" suggested by the former national team coach Yuan Weimin. However, no constant supply of bright young players and bad conservative tactics pulled China out of the first class. No wonder that Germany's Italian head coach Giovanni Guidetti said his team were familiar with the Chinese girls as well as their plays.

Commenting on not being able to enter the last four, Chen said this was due to injury problems among veteran players and the unreasonable grouping arrangement of the tournament. "The strong teams clashed at the early phase as we had so many difficulties in the beginning."

Despite the lackluster results, Chen still got a "consolation prize": the potential 2008 Olympics star, Wang Yimei. The world championship rookie was the second best scorer with 202 points and also second best in spikes and ninth in serves.

It was the performances by Wang along with another fresh hand, Xu Yunli, that reanimated Chen and led him to say, "I believe we can renew the glorious age in 2008."

In other games, Serbia-Montenegro beat Italy to win third place while Cuba finished in seventh place after defeating the Netherlands in straight sets. After making a promising start to the tournament, Chinese Taipei ended in 12th place as they were defeated by Germany 25-15, 25-19, 25-15.

In the individual awards, Japan's Yoshie Takeshita took the Most Valuable Player award after scooping the media vote and the vote of the FIVB's Control Committee.

(China.org.cn by Li Xiao, November 17, 2006)